Reports, proud muckraking, photos, videos and musings from the veteran LGBT and AIDS human rights advocate Michael Petrelis. Based in San Francisco since 1995.
Contact: MPetrelis_at_AOL_dot_com.
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Monday, June 15, 2015

SF Chron: Toilet Access Expands; Public Citizen Omitted

This is one way to reach the homeless. The SF Chronicle's entertainment section socialite columnist Leah Garchik promoted the toilet access expansion at taxpayer-funded firehouses. Here's what she wrote on June 11th:

"And bravo to the San Francisco Fire Department, for a May 30 release — signed by Chief Joanne Hayes-White, Department of Public Health Director Barbara Garcia and chief of the city’s homeless programs Bevan Dufty — underlining the department’s policy of making fire station toilets accessible to the public, including homeless people, between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. The announcement, which also lists the locations of automatic public restrooms, specifies that "any member of the public may ring the Fire Station doorbell and will be let in to use the toilet.'"

I'm not sure how many homeless folks read the Chron's Datebook section, but any publicity for making more people aware that they can pee and poop at SF Fire Department facilities is a good development. Would have been nicer for the paper to give this development some hard news coverage and mention the public citizen advocacy I performed, but can't have everything.